UK 313ers, folks in the Manchester area might be interested to check out the exhibition below, an expanded version of the show that was up at Gigantic ArtSpace in Tribeca in NYC last winter. the exhibition is primarily visual art, including work by the Heidelberg Project's Tyree Guyton, but i contributed a nearly 20 hour audio installation chronicling the history of the last 50 years of Detroit music, from John Lee Hooker to Theo Parrish and (hopefully) all points in between. there's five different CDs devoted to electronic music. if folks are interested, i can post the track listing to the 313 list, though, as you can imagine, it's pretty long, something like 262 songs over 14 cds, so i won't do that unless asked.
below is the press release put together by the gallery. take care, and enjoy later, mike rubin < D TROIT The art, music, culture and urban vibe of the Motor City. Thursday 20 May to Sunday 18 July 2004 at Urbis, Manchester, UK D TROIT is curated by Trevor Schoonmaker The exhibition originated at Gigantic ArtSpace (GAS), New York, and has been expanded for Urbis, Manchester. D TROIT examines the unique culture of the city known as "Motown," "The Motor City," "Detroit Rock City," "Techno City," or simply "The D." One of the most thorough exhibitions to examine the cultural output and creative exploration of the city, D TROIT uses video, photography, illustration, contemporary visual art, paintings, lightboxes, and a specially created music soundtrack, accessed through Apple iPods in one of the UK's first uses of this new technology as an exhibition medium, to explore the infamous degeneration of Detroit and the creative response to it. D TROIT makes powerful connections between the music, environment, politics, and social history of Detroit, and illustrates Detroit's startling ability to reinvent itself musically and artistically against a backdrop of urban blight -- a creativity born out of decay and neglect. Urbis Creative Director Scott Burnham says: "There is an amazing resonance between Detroit and Manchester -- each city's musical scene has inspired the other over the years, and both cities were once model modern industrial cities that were forced to reinvent themselves once their respective industries vanished. And, just like Manchester, Detroit found its soul emerging from its cultural output. This exhibition contains all the energy of Detroit's people, its music and urban landscape, from photographs of the fading utopia of its golden age to celebratory videos of the city's unique history and culture today." Like Manchester, Detroit was the very model of the modern industrial city in the first part of the twentieth century. Detroit was a booming metropolis, a skyline dominated by the looming factories of the motor industry that supplied cars and trucks to the rest of the world. However, the brutal combination of "white flight" from the city to the suburbs beginning in the 1950s, the 1967 race riots, the subsequent recession of the 1970s, and the decline of the automobile industry saw the economic and social demise of Detroit -- over that period its population shrank by one third, transforming Detroit from a thriving city to an architectural shell of desolation and decay, as seen in Eminem's 2003 film 8 Mile. D TROIT documents the creative response to the fading acropolis of Detroit. The city's rich musical heritage is referenced in a 20 hour-long soundtrack, which can be accessed through Apple iPods. The soundtrack has been compiled by American music journalist Mike Rubin, editor of Motorbooty. Spanning a historical overview of the last 50 years of diverse and influential artists, the soundtrack range includes the contemporary Eminem and the White Stripes; techno pioneers Derrick May and Jeff Mills; Motown artists including Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and Marvin Gaye; Aretha Franklin; and the seminal John Lee Hooker, Parliament-Funkadelic, Iggy Pop and the Stooges. D TROIT features the work of the following: Susan Cook: Video montage of family home movies and 1967 race riot footage examines societal ambivalence and expectations and how the past, both real and subliminal, affect the present. Doug Coombe: Current rocker and music photographer exhibits his haunting photographs from the off-limits interiors of the vast abandoned architecture of Detroit. Mark Dancey: Former rocker in the Detroit band Big Chief and co-founder of the influential underground culture and music zine Motorbooty exhibits his celebrated satirical illustrations. Andrew Dosunmu: Accomplished music video director exhibits Hot Irons, a poignant documentary about the world of African-American hairstyling as explained by five Detroit hairdressers in preparation for the "Hair Wars" convention. Tyree Guyton: Work from the Heidelberg Project, a community revitalization art installation, which has drawn international attention to the plight of Detroit's forgotten neighbourhoods. Kenjji: Drawings from the Afro-Futuristic WitchDoctor comic of black empowerment, a work for the urban disenfranchised. Kenjii is also well known for his album illustrations for Planet E Records. Thom Klepach: Video project narrates the unofficial history of Detroit in the last 50 years: urban clashes between the inner city emptiness and suburban bliss and the struggles of grass-root activism against the collusion of political and industrial controls. Kyong Park: Video project narrates the unofficial history of Detroit over the last 50 years: urban clashes between the inner city emptiness and suburban bliss and the struggles of grass-root activism against the collusion of political and industrial controls. Mark Powell: Mysteriously striking spur-of-the-moment photographic and short video portraits of the people of downtown Detroit. Thomas Rapai: Paintings of eerily isolated motels engage the quotidian images of middle America and embody the fallout of Detroit's utopian ideal and modern automobile industry. Mike Rubin: Music journalist and editor of Motorbooty compiled a historical overview of the finest Detroit area music of the last fifty years. Entitled 313 Jukebox, the sound installation totals 14 CDs and nearly 20 hours worth of music. Trevor Schoonmaker is a Brooklyn based independent curator and co-founder of the art-consulting agency, Associated Projects - www.associatedprojects.com. Schoonmaker recently curated Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2003). Black President is currently on view at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and will travel to the Barbican Art Gallery in London in September 2004. Also featured on Urbis Ground floor project space: The Sounds of Two Cities -- a video project by Elliot Eastwick (20 May to 18 July) which examines the huge influence of Detroit on a catalogue of Manchester performers and music producers from the sounds of northern soul to the techno dominating the club scene. Live interviews with some of Manchester's leading music legends, who explain the power of this particular city. Press on D TROIT: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/09/arts/design/09GALL.html?pagewanted=2 Detroit Metro Times http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=5752 Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/entertainment/newsandreviews/dtroit8_20040108.htm ___________________________________________________________ Listings information Thursday 20 May to Sunday 18 July 2004 Urbis, Cathedral Gardens, Manchester, M4 3BG - 0161 907 9099 Monday - Sunday 10.00am - 6.00pm. £5/£3.50 www.urbis.org.uk Press and Opening Reception: feat. live music and DJ set by Elliot Eastwick -- Wednesday, May 19 -- by invitation only. __________________________________________________________________ For further press information, visuals, interviews and opening reception invites: please contact Sue Fletcher T: 07775 933643 / 0161 226 3272 (pls call mobile first) or Lesa Dryburgh T: 0161 248 6405 / 07977 900481 [EMAIL PROTECTED] | [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
